Fire From The Sky | Book 11 | Ashes

by Reed, N. C.

  “Are you threatening me?” Gaines tried to sound incredulous, but it merely came out as more afraid.

  “Yes,” Clay nodded once. “I’m glad we understand each other. That will lessen any chance of miscommunication in the future, should you find yourself in charge, as you put it. This land has been in my family for well over one hundred years. We have worked our asses off to pay for it, and for everything we have. I will not have some half-wit, half-cocked, half-trained imbecile with a bar on her collar and chip on her shoulder threatening my family. That’s you, by the way,” he added snidely as another Hummer was making its way up the road.

  “I’ll have you-,”

  “Have him what?” Greg Holloway asked from behind her. She whirled to see the Sheriff standing there, looking at her.

  “I asked a question out here,” Greg’s voice took a harsher tone as he seemed to channel the Old Man. “Have him what? Because it almost sounded like you were going to threaten to arrest him. Which, I promise you, will be a mistake.” Even as he spoke the new arriving Hummer stopped behind the first.

  “Gaines, what the hell are you doing here?” Adcock demanded, almost angrily. “You should be back in Jordan, managing the humanitarian crisis there!”

  “I came here to make sure that Mister Sanders knows who is in charge,” Gaines informed him.

  “That would be me, Lieutenant,” Adcock’s voice dropped to a near murmur. “This is twice you’ve tried to use or imply authority that you don’t actually have. A third time will result in your removal. Just why is it that you felt that Mister Sanders,” he stressed the words, “needed your input?”

  “He sent all those civilians for me to deal with!” Gaines erupted. “Sir,” she remembered to add just barely in time.

  “And?” Adcock waited.

  “And, he should have done it himself!” Gaines retorted. “Not sent them to me!”

  “It is not his responsibility to ‘deal with’ the crisis that has developed here, Lieutenant Gaines,” Adcock spoke very formally. “And it is yours. Events of this nature are exactly why you are posted in Jordan to start with! He did exactly the proper thing by sending those people to see you. Someone who is supposed to be there to provide support in time of need. Clearly you’ve managed to forget that while you sat in your cushy table job at the Headquarters.”

  “Now,” he didn’t allow her time to respond. “I suggest you get your ass back in that Hummer, and you return to your post. And that you do so before I decide you are disobeying me in the field, where I am the ultimate authority. Do I make myself clear to you, Lieutenant?”

  Gaines clearly wanted to argue, but as Adcock’s words hit her, she wilted. His threat may have been well dressed and polite, but vague or no it was still a threat. She was on the verge of being shot.

  “Sir,” she straightened to attention.

  “I’m sorry, Lieutenant. I couldn’t hear you. What was that?” Adcock cupped a hand to his right ear in what would have been a comical gesture under other circumstances.

  “Yes, sir!” Gaines replied, stiffening further.

  “That is moderately better,” Adcock told her, his voice betraying his anger. “Get out of my sight.”

  Without a backward glance Gaines climbed into her Hummer, yelling at her driver to turn them around and take them back to Jordan.

  “I really miss Flores, now,” Clay said calmly.

  “No shit,” Adcock shook his head, then realized what he’d said. “Not that it matters, now,” he added hastily. “Thanks for having Gleason let me know what was going on. I’m afraid I’ll have to pull him and his men, though.”

  “He anticipated that,” Clay nodded. “Know where you’re going?”

  “Not as yet,” Adcock shook his head. “Still waiting on The Word. Meanwhile, I need a favor. A rather large one, I’m afraid.”

  “You need food,” Clay stated rather than ask.

  “Yes, I do,” Adcock agreed. “I was going to ask if you could spare maybe two head of cattle to be slaughtered and cooked for the people in Jordan. I’ve already gotten three head from a place south of Lewiston for the people there. It’s all we have for now other than what is left in the fields or in nature.”

  “Yeah, we can do that,” Clay agreed. “But I want an escort into town when we do. We’ll carry two cows and maybe four pigs that are feeder weight. I think it’s four, anyway,” he amended. “I’ll have people start getting that together right now. We’ll slaughter them here so we can keep the hides. That will mean we’ll need Gleason’s men to help load the sides.”

  “I’ll escort them myself,” Adcock nodded. “And helping load won’t be a problem, either. I’ll be taking Gleason and his detachment with me when I go.”

  “You’ll need him if Gaines is anything to go by,” Clay snorted.

  “Isn’t that the truth?”

  -

  “I want to make it plain that I am not complaining,” Alicia said as the family sat around the table. “But I thought we had said we weren’t going to dip into the herd anymore until the new crop of calves started to come of age. What happened to that?”

  “A stream of refugees from the north,” Clay replied with a shrug. “Hundreds of them. Maybe thousands by now, I don’t know. Adcock asked me to spare something for the people that landed in Jordan, noting that other outfits had already done the same in Lewiston. So, I sent what we could and maybe a bit more than I normally would have. But Adcock has been good to us, all things being evened, so I decided to help him out.”

  “I noticed they were leaving,” Gordon stated.

  “Adcock took Gleason and his men when he left,” Clay nodded. “He is escorting Cliff and Moses as they deliver the meat and ensuring their safety in returning. Adcock feels certain that the entire Guard contingent in this area will move north to engage whoever is pushing these refugees south. Which means we are alone. Again.”

  That declaration fell like a guillotine on the family.

  “I didn’t want them here, and now I don’t want them to go,” Alicia was shaking her head as she spoke first. “Wonder of wonders, huh?”

  “It’s easy to get used to being safe and protected by someone else,” Clay agreed. “We got sloppy the last two days. If not for X, we would have been blindsided by that first group, and likely inundated by some of the others before daybreak. We got lucky.”

  “How many people are we talking about?” Robert asked, concern clear in his voice.

  “No idea,” Clay admitted. “They’re still moving down the interstate, and not all of them are stopping, even in Lewiston. Adcock said before he left that fully half of the people on the road, if not more, are continuing south rather than stop. Seems as if they’re more afraid of what lies behind them than they are of being hungry,” he shrugged.

  “What do we do now?” Angela asked carefully.

  “We bottle up the road and we stay put,” Clay told her. “It’s all we can do. Greg has already said he can take the back way out, or even cross the branch on the tractor bridge and head overland to whatever they call that road to the north, now. Used to be Germany Hollow, I think?”

  “It still is, but there’s no ramp there,” Ronny nodded.

  “In a Hummer that really won’t matter,” Clay told him. “But I assumed he’d use that road to get somewhere he could use a ramp. He’s already gone in fact, but he headed out with Adcock and the others. When the Guard leaves, Greg’s work will really pick up. He dreads it, but it’s his responsibility now.”

  “We are going to help him, aren’t we?” Gordon asked, looking at his youngest son carefully.

  “We already are,” Clay promised. “But remember; every person on patrol with him is someone who isn’t here to stand a watch or defend this place. We’ve lost the Guard detachment as well. So, expect long hours and a lot of grumbling about it. I don’t blame them, but it’s just the way it is. Try not to be angry at people who are, well, angry,” he finished a little lamely.

  “Meanwhile, I’d
imagine there’s work to be done,” Gordon stood. “Things just got a lot more difficult, I’d wager.”

  “You can almost bet on it,” Clay agreed. “We’re going to be forced to make some hard and ugly choices soon. Be prepared for that, up here,” he pointed to his temple. “Ask yourselves how badly you want your children to have a decent life, and not end up like those folks on the highway. What you’re willing to do in order to make that happen. Because that is exactly where this will end.”

  “The easy ride is over as of now.”

  -

  “Easy ride?” Alicia almost whispered as she and Ronny returned home. “He’s saying things have been easy for us so far?”

  “They have,” Ronny looked distracted even as he replied. “Very easy, compared to others. We’ve worked for it, no mistake, but it’s still been easy. But he isn’t talking about the work, Ally. He’s warning us, trying to prepare us. The ugly things he’s warned us about time and again? They’re about to start in on us in a big way. People turn vicious when they’re hungry. Parents turn vicious when they see their children suffer.”

  “Yeah?” Ally still didn’t see it.

  “Ally, what would you be willing to do in order to feed our kids?” Ronny asked her, turning his full attention to her now.

  “Anything I had-,” she stopped short. “Oh.”

  “Oh,” Ronny nodded. “We’re about to be faced by people who will want to swarm this place like locusts and take every scrap of food they can find. What we’ve faced so far was nothing. An irritation at best.” He took a deep breath.

  “We’re about to be in a position where we may have to kill some parent for doing the same thing we’d do if we found ourselves in their place in times like these.”

  -

  “You need to take a break, Cowboy,” Lainie said gently. She had been standing in the doorway of his small office for two minutes and he hadn’t noticed her.

  “Can’t,” he shook his head as he continued looking at rosters. “There’s too much to do.”

  “Let some of the others take some of that,” Lainie insisted, her voice still gentle; soothing. “You’ve done a great deal in the last day. You need to eat and rest at least a little. We need you to be up and functional when we need you, Clay.”

  That seemed to get through to him as he tossed the papers on the table and leaned back in his chair, looking at the roof above him.

  “Because I’ve done such a great job up ‘til now?” he snorted. “We almost got overrun last night, Lainie. I mean, it was close. Those people were attracted to the noise, and the light of the fire. Once they got in here, we’d have had to kill them to get them out. And if we didn’t kill them, they would have come back and brought more with them.”

  “I know,” was all she said. Stepping behind him, she began to rub his shoulders gently.

  “This is going to be so bad,” Clay lowered his head as her hands worked on him. “So terribly ugly. You’re about to see things that usually only happen in Third World nations. Or in First World nations when they crumble. That’s what has happened out there while we were insulated and isolated from it in here. The Greeks believed that Prometheus gave fire to man, to help him build civilization. Now, that fire has been snuffed out, leaving nothing but ashes behind. That great civilization, destroyed in a matter of minutes.”

  “I know,” she said again. “There’s nothing you can do about that, Clay. Your job is here. Adcock and the others have the job of trying to clean up the mess. Your job is to keep our small fire burning for us, and for as many as we can help.”

  “We’re going to end up killing people who are just hungry,” Clay told her, his voice mournful. “Killing people for following their instincts to find food and survive. Just to protect our homes.”

  “Probably,” she agreed simply. “And it’s a shame. A terrible shame that it has to happen. But Clay, what happens to us if we allow those same people to swarm over this place and take everything? What do we do after that?”

  “We suffer,” Clay sighed. “Which I can’t allow. Even with the herd, I have to say no, because so much is riding on it for the future. Once we can get that first calf crop in, then we’ll be in a real position to help rebuild at least our area. To help the Guard while they try to put things back together, planting acreage to feed them while they work. Maybe enough to feed extra if we’re lucky.”

  “And that’s why you have to do whatever it takes to save this place and the people on it, Clay,” Lainie told him softly. “Because you may be the only one in a thousand miles who gives a tinker’s damn about anyone but themselves and the people around them. Thinking about the future, about trying to rebuild. You’ve done it since before this even happened and continued doing it right up to now. I know it’s hard, I do,” she moved to the side of his chair and knelt down, her hand trailing down his jaw.

  “I know, and I understand,” she all but whispered. “But we’ve come this far, Clay. We can’t quit now or else it’s all been for nothing. The only way through is forward.”

  “You really are smart, you know,” Clay smiled weakly, reaching up to take her hand in his. “I don’t know what to credit for having you. I really don’t.”

  “Well, you cut a pretty swell figure in that cowboy hat,” Lainie smiled. “Got a nice truck. And a nice ass, too,” she winked, almost giggling this time as she laughed. It made Clay laugh, which made him feel a tiny bit better.

  “C’mon, Cowboy,” she stood, pulling him from his chair. “Get off that nice ass of yours and let’s go home for a little while. You need to eat, take a shower, and get some rest. I’ll be right there with you to make sure you get it, too.”

  “You’ve talked me into it.”

  -

  “How bad was it?” Corey asked, looking at Zach. All five of the former teammates plus Kurtis Montana were huddled together in the Bunkhouse, discussing the events of the night and day.

  “I mean, nothing actually happened other than challenging that bunch on the road,” Zach shrugged. “But if you mean the interstate…man, there were people fumbling in the dark as far as the NVD would let me see. Hundreds, maybe thousands of them.”

  “Did any of them get off at the exit?” Gordy asked.

  “A few, here and there,” Zach nodded. “They all headed toward Jordan, though. Without the fire going here, there was nothing to lead them our way.”

  “I just don’t know about this, man,” Titus was shaking his head. “This just ain’t…ain’t right. Why now? After this long everybody up and decides to see the sunny south? That don’t sound right to me.”

  “It’s not,” Corey agreed.

  “Gleason said something, or someone was pushing them, or else they were running from that someone or something,” Zach told them. “He expects it to get worse, not better.”

  “I imagine it will,” Kurtis spoke for the first time. “And you boys better be ready for some nasty days ahead, too.”

  “Some of them will get off here and want to come our way,” Gordy agreed. “And no matter how desperate they seem, we can’t allow it,” he told the assembled teens. “I hate it. Worse than I can put into words, I hate it. But we cannot lose this place. It’s all we have, and our futures are built on it. If we lose it, we lose everything.”

  “That’s what I mean,” Kurtis nodded in agreement. “You’re gonna face some ugly decisions before long. Might as well set your mind to that now and be preparing to do what you have to.”

  “Just us?” Titus asked. “What about you?”

  “I already did it,” was the simple reply. “I faced this kind of thing before, on a smaller scale. And while it does suck, it is imminently preferable to the alternative,” he settled back on his bunk. He offered nothing further and no one pushed him about it, sensing his unease.

  “So, someone comes at you, holding a baby, and expects to walk right on in,” Corey said it out loud. “What then?”

  “You got two choices,” Kurtis told him, hands folded behind his
head as he stared at the ceiling. “You take care of their babies, or you take care of your own. There ain’t no third choice.” With that he turned his back to the rest and placed the edge of his blanket over his face to block the light. The others fell silent at that, each running things over in their minds. One thing was apparent to them all, however.

  There would be no winners here.

  -

  “This will be a very bad scenario,” Brick said softly as he sat on the front porch of what had been Leon’s house.

  “Most definitely,” Xavier nodded in agreement. The two had taken to having these talks once or twice a week since they had met with Beverly and worked through their issues. There were still areas where the ice was thin, but the two were working at it. That was honestly more than Beverly had ever expected.

  “It is my opinion that your former teammates will be of the same mind as yourself, when it comes to protecting this place and the people they care for?” said Brick before taking a drink from the cup of tea in his hand.

  “They will,” Xavier confirmed. “None of them are squeamish. They will regret it. They will hate themselves for it and will never grant themselves forgiveness, taking the guilt for it to their graves intact. But they will do what is necessary.”

  “I thought so,” Brick mused. “I have no issues doing what is needful to protect this place or it’s inhabitants, though I myself have only two people other than you that would concern me.”

  “Me?” Xavier’s surprise showed on his face and in his voice. “You’re professing concern for my wellbeing, brother? Be still my heart!” he feigned a fainting spell.

  “Your humor is no better now than when we were children,” Brick snorted. “Of course, I am concerned for you. It’s obvious that you cannot look after yourself,” he chuckled. “But I am also concerned about Lainie Harper, and Janice, of course. I promised Leon I would watch over both when he was gone.”